The Longest Story Ever by Andrew Wooding - Day #16

(You can join this epic story at any time, but have fun browsing the archives if you want to dip into past instalments or even start from the beginning. Feel free to leave your comments as well. Cartoons by Mychailo Kazybrid.)


Here's a really quick recap of the story so far: Charlie the Dog and his maid, Ethel, were trying to capture a dangerous international spy at their local tree centre. The trouble was, he was cleverly disguised as a tree. How would they find him amongst all the other trees?

With the world's most powerful hairdryer, that's how!

Charlie switched it on and pointed it at the nearest group of trees.

Whoooosh!!!

The trees bent and swayed awkwardly in the onslaught of wind. All of them, that is, except for one of the smaller trees which shot straight up from the ground and landed with a thump on a nearby bench.

Charlie immediately ran over and ripped all the leaves and branches off the imitation tree. Underneath all that foliage was an angry, scowling man. Dangerous international spies are always angry and scowling – that's how you can tell who they are.

'Gotcha!' said Charlie triumphantly, slipping some handcuffs on him.

'Grr! I'm not very happy at all!' growled the dangerous international spy, slipping the handcuffs off again because they were much too big for him.

Charlie grabbed some smaller handcuffs and clamped them over the man's wrists. No slipping at all this time – the spy was well and truly caught.

Scowling even more, the spy snapped: 'So, how did you know that your hairdryer would find me out?'

'Yes,' said Ethel, who'd strolled over to join them once she knew that the dangerous international spy was safely clamped in those handcuffs and couldn't do them any harm. 'What's the deal with the hairdryer, sir?'

'Simple,' said Charlie. 'I wanted to root out my spy from among those trees. And I figured that if he wasn't a real tree, he wouldn't have any roots. I knew that the other trees would stay put when faced with a mighty wind, but our enemy here … well, it looks like he ended up on the losers' bench!'

'Ha ha!' laughed Ethel.

'Ho ho!' chortled Charlie the Dog.

No, this isn't the clichéd heartwarming bit at the end of the story. There's another instalment tomorrow, and many, many more to come…


Today’s total: 357 words (Total so far: 5,364 words)